Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Cairns signs up for Notts

Nottinghamshire have ignored the threats by Lalit Modi and the Indian Premier League by signing New Zealander Chris Cairns for their Twenty20 Cup campaign.

Cairns, who will be 38 on Friday, has been one of the leading stars involved with the Indian Cricket League – the rival competition to the IPL. Modi has said that any ICL players in the Twenty20 Cup shall be illegible from playing in the Champions League in September and October, when the winning team will collect $5 million.

The Nottinghamshire Outlaws, though, have swooped for former overseas star Cairns, who played for them from the late 1980’s.

“Chris has joined us as a Kolpak player and will play alongside (Australian) Adam Voges,” Notts Chief Executive Derek Brewers told Bigstarcricket.

“We have taken the decision to play our best side,” Brewer added in response to the discussion about selecting ICL players. “We will have to wait and see what happens but at the moment we have not received any timeline on when we will hear.”

On the move, Cairns said: “Notts have been part of my life for 20 years and I truly thought that I had played my last game for the club, so I am pleased to have the chance to make a return,” Cairns, whose signing is subject to approval from the England and Wales Cricket Board, was quoted as saying by Sportinglife.

“I am a Notts member, I have always kept an eye on the results and there is no other club that I would have rather joined. It was a late decision and the registration could come down to the wire but I'm fit to play and I can't wait to get started.

“The Twenty20 format suits my style because I like to entertain and I love winning cricket matches.”